Social Missions of Academic Health Centers

To the Editor: Blumenthal et al. (Nov. 20 issue) 1 present a picture of academic health centers that is difficult to reconcile with the centers' current activities. Many of these centers have taken aggressive steps to purchase and assimilate medical practices, and some have gone into the insurance business. In short, the centers have not used their resources to reduce their high costs to patients but instead have attempted to acquire a large fraction of the patients in their various areas. To the Editor: Blumenthal and colleagues may yet breathe new life into the academic health center. As they suggest, any . . .